Werecroc: Details, shading

Got back to the werecroc today. I've got a commission piece I'll be starting soon, and I want to get him finished first.

I put the stripes and spots on his back. That's an idea that was pulled directly from my reference photo. I also put some highlights on the claws, and shaded and highlighted the inside of his mouth. I also put a little bit of a darker brown around the bottom of his teeth.

Next will be doing some (probably limited) shading and highlighting on the rest of him.

Cowboy: Base, Con't.

I attached the cowboy to his base. Not bad!

I also made some adjustments to the railing. I 'broke' one of the spindles and leaned it to the side. I also shortened the side pieces and put caps on them. Here's the result.

And here's what he would look like, more or less, with the railing in place.

It's a little taller than it would be, as I'd trim the corners off the floor boards and set the posts down under the floor. I haven't decided if I'm going to use it or not. It's just be in the way of painting him right now anyway, so I'm going to leave it off, do the painting, and decide later.

Werecroc: Details. Cowboy: Base

I went with adding details on the croc. I did his eyes, mouth, and claws. I actually did this yesterday, but didn't get a chance to post.

A note on painting from a source picture. His skin colors and the color on the inside of his mouth came right from pictures of crocodiles that I found on Google. However, when I looked at the colors for eyes and claws, both were similar greens to his skin. I didn't go with those. Why not? Well, for his eyes, I didn't want them to blend in with the rest of him. I wanted something that would stand out, so I went with yellow/orange. For the claws, I went with a darker color because I also wanted them to stand out. He's a were-crocodile and should be scary, and part of that is the big, sharp, claws.

Today I built the base for the cowboy. I'm going with wood planks, like on a porch or front entrance to the local saloon. Here's the base.

It's built with coffee stir sticks that I grabbed from my favorite Starbucks. That far back plank does have glue on it; I put the wrong side down on my first attempt. I'll have to sand that down. I have painted it gray here. It will end up gray, but this is just a primer/basecoat to start with so that I wouldn't have to worry about painting the bottom of the pieces or in between the planks. It will get final paint later. The broken board is on purpose to add a little interest.

I also built a railing.

This is made with plasticard. It has a number of imperfections. I'm going to put the cowboy on and see how it looks with the railing. I may not end up using it, but here's what it would kind of look like together.

Now, the bottom of the posts will be lower, and I'll trim the thick posts shorter. But we'll see. First I have to see if it works with the figure or not.

Werecroc: Rest of the Base Coat

Today I did the rest of his base coating, at least on the hide. I went with a lighter green stripe and then an almost white belly. I did a lot of wet blending to ease the transitions between those colors.

I'm liking him so far. Not sure what I'm going to do about shading and highlights, exactly.

Next time, I'll either finish detailing on his hide or detail his face. For his hide, the picture I'm working from has darker stripes across the back. For his face, it'd be doing the eyes and mouth. Maybe his claws as well.

Werecrocodile: Base Coating

Next project: the Bones Werecrocodile.

This is just a base coat on his back and other darker skin areas. Next I'll probably try to blend in the lighter color areas along his side and his belly, so the whole thing will be base coated.

19!

Finished of Marcus's base and attached him.

He'll do.

I have a Bones crocodile guy I'll work on the rest of this week. Then, I'm hoping this weekend to get back to the cowboy by building his base. His plinth is made and being finished with polyurethane now. After that I can build the scenic elements he'll be standing on, attach him, and get back to painting.

Marcus: Paint Done

I did the metal on Marcus today. That's all the paint for him. I just have to do his base now.

Marcus: Leather

Highlighting on the leather. I probably should go brighter with the highlights.

I found his shield today while I was looking for his base. The shield is supposed to be strapped to his back. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it or skip it. In a lot of cases, there's a spot meant to receive the piece that will not look right if it's not there. Here, his back looks fine without the shield.

Marcus: Net, Leather

Today I finished Marcus's net and started on the leather bits - his boots, the belts, and so on.

I added highlights to the net and painted the little weights along the edge of it gray. Then I went on to base coat the leather in dark brown. I debated about brown vs. black; I was concerned that he's already got a lot of brown with that skin tone. But using a really dark brown seems to have worked.

18!

As I hoped, I finished off Rasia today.

Her base has some odd texture I wasn't sure what to do with. I could have tried covering it with flock or static grass, but that wasn't really the base I wanted for her, either. I ended up just painting it dark and figuring it could be ignored as not really part of the display.

I also got back to work on Marcus.

That's the fringe on his loincloth and a start on the padded bits on his arms, the net, and the cuff on his armored shin. The padding is mostly done, though it won't look right until the leather straps also get painted. The net still needs a fair bit of work. I'm not real thrilled with it so far. However, if you note, I've put blue in the shadows of the padding and the net, just like on his skin and the loincloth. It's actually the same blue, which I also used as the base color on the fringe. It will help give him a cohesive look.

But there's really not much more to him - I'll do the leather parts next, which is most of the boots, his belt, the strap that holds on the shoulder plate, and the straps on the padding on his arms. Then it'll be the armor plates and the spear.

Rasia: Almost done!

I've done everything except her swords and the base. That is, shading and highlighting on the purple scarf thingy, and doing all of the gold bits. The swords have a base coat but need their shading and highlighting.

Rasia: Green Highlights

I finished off Rasia's pants and head band with a couple more rounds of highlights:

This is two additional layers of highlight, the first in Jade Green, and the second with a mix of Jade Green, Linen White, and Lemon Yellow.

I also put a purple base coat on the strappy things attached to her bra.

I'm thinking I'll do her jewelry, bra, and whatnot in gold - she'll have Mardi Gras colors! But also, with gold on those pieces and then a light steel for her swords, she should have some good contrast as far as light and dark areas on the figure. Her skin and the swords will be light colors, the hair and gold will be more in the middle, and the green and purple areas are relatively dark.

Rasia: Clothes

I put some shading and a first round of highlights on Rasia's green pants and headband today.

I shaded with purple, of course! It definitely needs a round or two or lighter highlights.

Rasia: Hair, Clothes. Marcus: Loincloth

I finished up Rasia's hair, and started the base coat on her pants and head band.

I don't usually do much shading of hair. I just base coat it in the darkest color that I want and then highlight up, maybe putting in a little bit of darker shadow in any really deeply shadowed areas. However, for her, since she has such a stylized look anyway I decided to do a little more with her hair. I've added more shadow than usual, and I've done it in purple to add some hue contrast as well.

Let's talk a bit about her eyes. The way she's posed, she's definitely looking to the side, not straight ahead. So, I put her irises in the corners of her eyes so she'd clearly be looking the way her face is pointing. Here's a close up.

I also got some work in on Marucs, shading and highlighting the red cloth.

I shaded it with he same blue I used in the shadows on his skin.

Sadly, somewhere along the line Marcus lost one of the tynes on his trident:

I have a spare, so I could try to replace the whole head of the trident. That seems fraught with danger, though, so I think it's more likely that I'm going to leave it as-is and paint it as battle damage.

Rasia: Skin, Hair

Today I finished Rasia's skin and face, and started on her hair. Hmm...I might go back and give her some makeup. I don't normally, but she seems like she might be an eye shadow kind of lady.

Marcus: Loincloth. Rasia: Skin

I've been sick all week, so today was the first day I felt up to painting at all. I don't feel up to working on anything serious, though, so I grabbed something from the pre-primed box of old figures, fuzzy primer and all. This is Rasia.

I'm not going to speed paint her, but I'm not going to spend a ton of time on her, either. I think this sculpt has a number of flaws. Her right arm is noticeably thinner than her left, and has no musculature to it. She has a serious case of melon breasts (breasts that look like she has a couple melons taped to her chest). I'm not sure how she's actually meaning to use the sword that's going behind her back. In any case, the concept is neat, but the implementation leaves a little to be desired. Regardless, she'll be my project for the next couple days.

I did get a little more done on Marcus a few days ago, but was unable to get pictures at the time. It was just a base coat on his loincloth and headband.